Prodigal Sons
by SombraAlma
Summary: The Oceanic Six, plus two, return. "There's only been one other time, in all her years on this island, that she's felt an earthquake."


**Title: **Prodigal Sons**  
Rating: **PG**  
Disclaimer: **Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary: **The Oceanic Six, plus two, return. _There's only been one other time, in all her years on this island, that she's felt an earthquake._**  
Spoilers: **Through the season 4 finale.**  
Notes: **Lyrics quoted at the end are from Iron & Wine's Upward Over the Mountain. There's actually one line of this song that fits with each section of this fic, but I decided not to include those within the text.

* * *

It's an angry, soaking rain in the middle of the night, when they're woken by the island shaking from its very core. The familiar fear keeps them huddled in their tents, grasping at their few possessions as everything is rattled from its usual resting place.

After the initial alarm, though, Juliet's breath catches in her throat. She's already reaching for a sweatshirt to pull over her head, and she steps out of her tent just as the final shudder subsides back into the earth.

There's only been one other time, in all her years on this island, that she's felt an earthquake.

* * *

As soon as the tremors subside, Sawyer checks to make sure his glasses and his few remaining bottles of booze haven't broken in the quake. He can hear it's still raining, and he's got no desire to go outside and check things out, but now the damned dog won't stop barking and he's not going to get back to sleep, anyway. He grumbles to himself as he pulls a shirt over his head and gets to his feet.

His eyes haven't adjusted to the darkness yet, so he feels rather than sees a large form rushing at him. He puts his arms up defensively, thinking too late about the gun laying next to his pillow, only to be crushed between two very wet, enthusiastic arms. "Dude! Dude! You're alive!"

Recovering from the shock of the unexpected assault, Sawyer pats his sudden companion on the back awkwardly, and this almost feels too familiar to be real. "Hey...Hey, Jethro, calm down. Give a man some breathin' room, okay?"

Hurley steps back slightly, and Sawyer can see enough now to make out other forms on the beach, ones he'd honestly thought he'd never see again. And Hurley is speaking now, still in the rushed, breathless tone he'd used first. "Dude. You jumped. I thought...we all thought, man..."

And Sawyer grins a bit, shaking his head as he slings his arm around Hurley's broad shoulders. "Thought I jumped without knowin' how to swim? Well, that'd just be stupid, now wouldn't it?" His grin softens as he allows himself to be pleased with the concern. "Good to have you back, Hugo. Good to have you back."

* * *

Jin and Claire hang back, at the edge of the jungle, huddled together as they watch the activity on the beach. Claire is having trouble drawing a deep enough breath, and she reaches for Jin's hand, holding it tightly in hers. "I told her...not to bring him back." She doesn't know what to hope for as she searches the faces of the new arrivals.

Jin looks at her with confusion on his face. "You don't...want to...see him? Aaron?"

Claire shakes her head, not knowing how to explain her insistence to someone who's never even seen his own child. She's opening her mouth to try, when she gasps instead, gripping his hand tighter. "Oh, Jin. _Look._"

And she knows the second he sees them, because he drops her hand with one whisper on his breath. "Ji Yeon." She watches as he walks to them, almost in a daze, and finally embraces his wife and daughter. Claire almost smiles.

But then she hears it, the unmistakable high voice of a little boy. "Mommy, are we here now?" She hears a murmured reply, indiscernible, and she steps out of the trees, the rain mingling with the tears on her face. She stops in her tracks the moment Kate sees her, and they're both frozen on the spot, Claire's legs feeling like lead. Finally, she watches as Kate seems to gather herself up and crosses the remaining distance between them in slow, heavy steps.

"Mommy?" The little boy in Kate's arms questions again, and Kate's face crumples visibly as she stops in front of Claire.

She should be angry, Claire thinks. She should resent this other woman and the name he calls her and the blatant disregard of her midnight pleas for her son's safety. But instead she reaches out, tentatively at first, to brush her fingers over the little boy's head. "Aaron," she breathes, and she trails her hand down to cup his round cheek.

"I'm sorry," Kate is saying, sounding like the words are hard to pronounce. "I know you said...and I wasn't...but I had to. We had to." She presses her cheek to the top of Aaron's head, and Claire nods.

"I know."

* * *

Vincent stops barking abruptly. He shakes the rain out of his face and then stands stock still, his head cocked as he concentrates on the movement at the shoreline. His body quivers with barely-contained excitement, and he lets out a soft whimper. The rain is making it harder to identify scents as well as he usually can, but faint though it is, there's one he'd recognize anywhere. He gives himself a split second to be sure, then he's off at a dead sprint, one sharp bark of joy as he goes.

Walt's bowed head comes up quickly, and Vincent can smell the difference in him, the moment recognition hits. "Vincent!" And he's off running, too, his longer legs making short the distance between them.

They meet with a tumble, both rolling onto the wet sand, all laughter and snuffles, hands and paws. The others on the beach pause in their own reunions to watch Walt become a little boy again as Vincent licks the seawater and rain from his face.

* * *

Juliet waits.

She's seen him and knows he hasn't spotted her yet, but she no longer holds any hopes or expectations for this reunion. She'd never thought it'd happen at all, so this is enough, for now. It will have to be.

She pulls her wet hair away from her face and watches as he and Sayid struggle to pull something – a pine box – up onto the beach. They're walking with it, towards the makeshift cemetery they'd started so many years ago, and her breath catches as Jack stumbles, muttering something to Sayid as he rights himself.

Quietly, she moves towards them, placing her hand on the coffin as she speaks. "Jack." She waits for his gaze to meet hers, surprise and shame and regret intermingled, before speaking again. "Let me help."

Gratitude, now, in his eyes, and she takes his end of the coffin with him and they continue their walk, together.

* * *

He's watched everything from his vantage point, deep in the jungle, but now Jacob ventures closer to the beach. He's careful to not be detected – not yet – and he moves silently through the trees, wanting only to be closer to them, to the thrum of human emotion that he's invited, once again, to his home.

He stops at the edge, the dark point between jungle and beach, and lets out a long breath, almost a sigh.

On the beach, they look up at the lightening sky as the rain slows to a stop.

Jacob's heart swells in satisfaction and something they might have called love. _His children have returned to him._

He smiles, and the day's first sun breaks from the clouds.

_(So may the sunrise bring hope where it once was forgotten  
Sons are like birds, flying upward over the mountain)_


End file.
